Electronic devices may be used in many types of systems and/or applications, such as control systems, data processing systems, medical systems, telecommunication systems and/or data communication networks. Electronic devices may include, for example, system controllers, servers, data acquisition systems, medical imaging systems, central office systems, and/or network devices, such as routers, switches, firewalls, and/or network address translators.
For some applications, it may be desirable to make electronic devices scalable to accommodate new application requirements. For example, a communication network may be expanded to accommodate new users, modified to accommodate new networking protocols and/or types of data traffic, and/or may be reconfigured in response to network attacks and/or natural disasters.
Scalable electronic devices may be designed to accommodate certain changes. For instance, an electronic device may be configured to include a chassis that accepts cards to provide flexibility for accommodating new application requirements. A card may include a device capable of receiving data from another device, performing operations on the data, and/or making data available to another device. Implementations of cards may take the form of foxed and/or removable cards or boards that are configured and adapted for use in an electronic device.
Cards may require varying supply voltages and/or currents based on the types of components operating on a card and/or types of operations performed by a card. In addition, different modules and/or components operating on a card may require still other supply voltages. For example, a card may support a first module requiring a first voltage, a second module requiring a second voltage, and a third module requiring a third voltage. Power supplies, such as direct current to direct current (DC/DC) converters, may be placed on the modules and/or card to produce the first, second, and/or third voltage. Moreover, multiple DC/DC converters may be placed on modules requiring more than one voltage. As a result, the amount of module space available for other types of components, such as data transfer components, may be reduced. Moreover, additional heat may be generated by the DC/DC converters on the modules thereby increasing cooling requirements for the modules and/or card.